If you need a laugh...

Life can be challenging as a teacher of preschool children with special needs. I try to find something to laugh about every day so I don't cry! Here are some of my favorite stories...
~ As a little boy is walking around the outside of the rug, I ask him to please come sit down at his table and eat his breakfast... nothing. "J., come on over to your table to eat breakfast now." "I not J., I Incrediboy!" "Well, Incrediboy, come on over and have some breakfast!" "OK," and over he walks.
~ That same day the phone in my classroom rang and my assistants and I were all spread around the room. Luckily, J. was right there to answer it! Ah! I'm so glad one of my assistants was close enough to get it from him quickly, and that the office has a good sense of humor.
~ I was asking my students during play time to count various objects. "P., how many eyes do I have?" "Both of 'em" (He looked at me as if I was crazy to even ask!)
~ One of my students had just gone to the bathroom, and as he came back into the room, he announced to all... "Somebody pooped in my underwear!" hmmm... 'well, it wasn't me,' I thought. One of my assistants took him to get him changed and cleaned up. He hadn't actually gone in his pants, he just hadn't wiped all the way. He was right, he didn't go, but since there was a mark, he was convinced that someone had!

photos

Dustin has been playing around some with the camera the last few days and is having a good time with it. Here are a few of the pictures that he took today on our day off of school.

Resolutions

We decided that this year we were going to join the masses and make 2009 the year to get in shape! Last week we joined a local gym, Planet Fitness, and have really enjoyed working out. I never realized how much working out could clear the mind and give so much more energy. We have gone nearly every day and hopefully will be able to keep it up. (My Tuesday and Wednesday night classes could pose a slight problem.)

As most of you know, this past Fall, we took a Financial Peace class through our church. We have been working hard at paying off our debt, and hope to be out of it except for our home within the next few years. We highly recommend taking the course if your church offers it! It will be frustrating and hard but worth it.

Help keep us accountable!

Christmas and New Years 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Well, now that our vacation is over, I finally have time to post about it!  We were very busy over break, but had a wonderful time with all the family.  We were able to see the Nieter's for a few days, then down to North Carolina to visit Dustin's grandparents, then his parents, brother, and his girlfriend came up to visit for a few days.  Then it was back to Chesapeake to drop the dog off and head to Indiana for a week!  I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see "real" snow from Indiana, but was happy that temperature was above zero (it had been below that the week before we went up there)!

We are now at home relaxing and getting back into the swing of things at work.  

Weekend with the McCollum's

This past weekend Dustin's parents were able to come up for a visit.  For the first time they were able to come up and just relax rather than help work on the house!  We took a drive on the parkway on Saturday and ended up at Mabry Mill.  After church on Sunday we did some shopping.  (We are now officially done with Christmas shopping!)  Monday night was Dustin's winter concert.  It was wonderful for his parents to be able to see all of his hard work in person.  

Thanksgiving

Better late than never, right?  

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend with the Nieter's this year.  It was a great time of cooking, eating, relaxing, and of course shopping!  It was a lot of fun to hit the Black Friday sales with the ladies.  I think we're almost done with our shopping!  

Somehow we only have pictures with Blake... you wouldn't even know that there were any adults around!  We'll try to do better at Christmas.  

Blake helping Uncle Dusty take pictures.

Practicing our crawling.

Ok, so there was at least one picture without us hogging Blake (he was probably down for a nap!)